“But my dad was known to embellish,” Gary said, explaining: “He once told me that a wheel that was in our basement belonged to an airplane. It was actually from a wheelbarrow.”

Carnevale’s family only learned recently that the teasing dad who matched his socks and tie when he dressed for work, the unpolished dancer who would trample his wife’s feet, also earned six medals for his military service.

In 29 missions, including flights over Germany and Central Europe, he fired 50-caliber machine guns aboard a B-24 heavy bombardment aircraft, doubling as an in-flight mechanic.

But he never received the medals he earned.

On Thursday, Carnevale’s 91-year-old wife Frances — in a ceremony attended by three of their five children and two grandchildren in Rep. Bill Pascrell’s Paterson office — finally received the medals.

“Sixty years is not too late, right?” Pascrell joked.

“Better late than never,” Frances Carnevale said.

Pascrell, whose office found out about the overdue medals, said he hoped awarding them now would “get people to think about how fortunate we are for these people.”

Frank Carnevale was a lifelong Paterson resident and a graduate of the former Central High School. He enlisted in the Army in March 1943, at age 19, and was deployed to an airbase in North Pickenham, England, in September 1944, according to his son Gary. He was honorably discharged in October 1945.

His six awards include the World War II Victory Medal, African Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal and a relatively rare Air Medal.

Carnevale’s family didn’t know about them, or about much of his time in combat, because he would only talk about the war “once in a while,” Frances said.

It appears he never asked for the medals, his family said.

“He probably never bothered,” said Joyce Savastano, his daughter, pointing out he was busy raising five children.

Carnevale worked for 30 years after the war as a procurement engineer for Curtiss-Wright, a huge aircraft engine manufacturer that once had a large plant in Paterson. For about 15 years, he was head of maintenance at the U.S. Postal Service’s bulk mail center in Jersey City. He continued working until he died in 1989 of a heart attack, according to Savastano.

Carnevale’s family found out about his decorated service record after Savastano’s husband met Pascrell at Cortina Ristorante in Paterson last summer. He asked the congressman for help learning about Carnevale’s military career.

Nancy Everett, who works on constituent services for Pascrell, dug into the records and found out about the six medals he never got.

The Air Medal in particular caught her eye because she had never seen one in years of handling cases for veterans. It is awarded for “meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight,” according to the 1942 Executive Order establishing the award.

“They’re not given out every day,” Everett said.

Pascrell handed Frances Carnevale the medals one by one on Thursday. Smiling, she held them up for her children and grandchildren. “I’m just so happy my family is here,” she said.

Though Carnevale didn’t say much of his time at war, his love of country was evident when he would walk past an American flag, Savastano said.

“He stood at attention, all by himself,” Savastano recalled. “It wasn’t for show. It was just because he had such respect for the American flag, for the country and all of the people he was able to do service for.”